256 - SALVATION AND THE LORD’S APPEARING
JANUARY 13, 1963
Henry F. Kulp
I Thessalonians 1: 1 - 5 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
Last week we gave you the background of the birth of this church and how it was born in a marvelous way, with just a little instruction from Paul. And went on to great things for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you remember we told you this was the first writing of Paul, and it was written from Corinth, after Paul had left Berea because of persecution. Timothy and Silas, at his request, had remained behind and gone on to Thessalonica, then they came back to Paul to report on the condition of the young church
1/ This church was made up mainly of Gentiles and not Jews, but the majority were Gentiles for this is quite obvious, verse 9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
Paul was deeply concerned about these young believers, and Paul tell us he had no rest in his spirit while he waited for the coming of Timothy and Silas, because he feared that Satan may have taken advantage of those who were so recently brought to Christ.
I Thessalonians 3: 5 For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.
But then the 6th verse he tells us that when word came to him it was most encouraging. And it led to the writing of this epistle.
2/ It is an interesting fact that the appearing—the rapture of the church is referred to in some way in every chapter of this epistle. And now, remember, the letter was addressed to “babes in Christ,” and it shows you how important this Appearing of Jesus Christ in the Heavens for His church, this rapture, is. Even babes in Christ should be indoctrinated in it. How often today we are told this doctrine is not important, we are not to be too much occupied with it. And how many preachers never preach on it at all. But this shows us that this is important.
3/ Now, let us look at the outline of the book of Thessalonians. The whole book is about the Appearing of Jesus Christ, and the first chapter is the relation of salvation to the Lord’s Appearing. And the second chapter is the relation of Christian service to the Lord’s Appearing. The third chapter is about the relationship of sanctification to the Lord’s Appearing. The fourth chapter is the relationship of the resurrection to the Lord’s Appearing, and then the fifth chapter is the relationship of the safety of the believer before the Lord’s Appearing.
4/ Now let us look at this first verse. The first verse gives us the salutation. You will notice there is an absence of all apostolic titles—there are just the single names. Paul, Sylvanus (which is Silas), and Timotheus, which is Timothy. It was very significant that he does not call himself, Paul the Apostle. He does that in 9 out of 13 epistles that he writes. And in Philippians, one of the epistles where he does not call himself an apostle, he calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ. In Philemon he calls himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ. So it is very significant that in I and II Thessalonians, he uses no titles, just calls himself by the name of Paul. This shows us that Paul, to this assembly, had nothing to prove. Most of the other epistles he wrote, he had to prove his apostleship. But these people here in Thessalonica, they just took Paul at his word, they didn’t make him prove that he was an apostle.
5/ You will remember that Paul, which means little, or small, was a name that he took from the first Gentile he led to the Lord Jesus Christ on the Isle Of Paphos. The word, Timotheus, the long form of Timothy, is composed of two Greek words, Timao – and it means one who honors God—and so this young man did honor God in His life.
6/ Then notice, the church of the Thessalonians. Quite often we have talked to you about this word, ecclesia, which is church—and it means a company called out. The word church can be used of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament—it was even used of a riotous mob in
Acts 19: 32 - 41
Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused: and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together. And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence unto the people. But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter? Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly. For ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor yet blasphemers of your goddess. Wherefore if Demetrius, and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies: let them implead one another. But if ye enquire any thing concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly. For we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar, there being no cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse. And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.
So it means assembly, a company called out for God from among all the devil worshipers, the idol worshipers, called out unto God. Thessalonians just means the locality where the assembly met. And Paul meets them with grace and peace. The Greeks used the word, grace, to greet one another—the Hebrews used the word, peace, to greet one another. Grace is more than mercy, for mercy is God not giving you what you deserve— So grace is more than mercy, more than a multitude of tender mercies, it is God the Father, and God the Son, giving you everything for nothing. Notice, grace is from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not from the Apostles, it is not from the assembly, it is not from any organized group, it is from God the Father, and God the Son.
7/ There never can be peace without grace. Grace is the source of peace.
8/ Verse 2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; Notice, Paul’s faithfulness in prayer. We are to pray for one another. Paul tells us that in
I Timothy 2. And Paul followed his own instruction. He prayed for this church that he was worrying about—this church that didn’t have too many deep roots, a church that was facing persecution—the hatred of the religionists. Notice, Paul did not pray in generalities—he prayed specifically. I am sure you should have a prayer list, and pray for people in particular, for special circumstances—you are to pray, asking God to work for folks and for circumstances.
9/ Never forget Paul was a man of intense activity. He preached, he visited from house to house. He worked at tentmaking for his daily bread, yet he found time to intercede with God on behalf of all the churches he had to found. He prayed for these people. Don’t use the excuse you are too busy—I am sure you aren’t as busy as the Apostle Paul.
10/ Verse 3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
There are three famous words in this verse. Faith, hope and love. You will notice that that these three words are linked together in other Pauline epistle.
I Corinthians 13: 13 And now abideth, faith, hope and love, these three, and the greatest of these is love.
The Apostle Paul says that all three, faith, hope and love are permanent—the important word right at this point in our study is the word, abideth – I am glad that these three abide. There are so many things that do not abide. Youth is soon gone—health, even if you have it for 70 or 80 years, it is gone in a very short time. Opportunity, privileges, friends, loved ones. None of these things abide, but praise God, faith, hope and love do abide.
11/ Then the next word that is important, is that one of these things excels the others. Even though all three are permanent—the greatest of these is love.
12/ I am sure you will recognize that faith is important.
Hebrews 11: 5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Without faith it is impossible to please God, and we told you that faith is the binocular of the believer—the field glass of the believer, that enables him to see things he cannot see with his naked eye.
But yet, God says, love is greater than faith. How is love greater than faith? There is no question faith saves me. In other words, faith appropriates something for myself, but love causes me to serve others. Love sends me out in gracious concern for others. Than, how is love greater than hope? Hope cheers me, but again, love makes me serve others. Hope anticipates something for myself, but again, love makes me have a gracious concern for others.
13/ Notice in our 3rd verse your work of faith. Faith produces works, if it is alive and real and vital. Notice this truth in Ephesians 2: 8 - 10 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
We are saved by grace through faith, not by works of ourselves. But then the 10th verse he tells us we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Faith should cause a man to work.
14/ But when we go back to I Thessalonians 1: 3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
we find the labor of love. True faith produces work, but love makes us work to the point where it is labor. That word labor means to toil, it means fatigue, it means to do it in an exhausting way.
15/ Notice what love is, I Corinthians 13: 4, 5 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
First of all, love suffers long, is kind, never envies, never boasts, is never conceited, never behaves unseemly. Is utterly unselfish, always seeking others good. When we test our love by this portion of Scripture, how little there is in some of us. How so pre-occupied we are.
16/ The thing that is amazing here—
We can take the name Jesus Christ and put it in the place of charity, which is love. Jesus Christ suffereth long, Jesus Christ is kind, Jesus Christ envieth not, Jesus Christ is not one given to boasting, He is not conceited. But then try putting your name where the word, love, occurs. Would I be able to do it? Would you be able to do it? I believe these folks at Thessalonica where like that. They had love that labored to the point of exhaustion.
17/ How much love do you have for Jesus Christ? You can judge that. First of all we have a principle that tells us the amount of love we have in our hearts for one another or for Jesus Christ.
Luke 7: 47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
Here was a woman who was taken in a terrible sin, she loved the Lord Jesus Christ, but then a Pharisee who claimed to love God saw Jesus Christ being adored by this woman, he immediately lost respect for Jesus Christ. And then Christ told him the parable of the creditor and the two debtors, and he brought out that this woman who had been down the scale of sin, and now loved Him, loved Him much because she had been forgiven much. But he didn’t think he had much to be forgiven—that is, this Pharisee, so therefore he didn’t have much love. It depends upon what God has done for you that will govern the amount of love you have for God.
18/ Romans 12: 9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
Where he says let love be without dissimulation. That means let love be sincere. There is only one way that a believer can have love that is sincere, and that is by having real gratitude to God, recognizing all that God has done for him.
19/ Galatians 2: 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Shows us the love of gratitude. The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me, so I love Him. And then I John 4: 19 We love Him, because He first loved us.
That is love of gratitude. But the love that God wants more than a love of gratitude.
20/ He wants a love that works, a love that labors for Him. You can know whether your love is genuine by the fact of the way that it labors in your life.
21/ Then we have hope in our Lord Jesus Christ that produces patience. Hope anticipates something for myself. This has to do with the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Heavens. When Jesus Christ appears in the Heavens it will be the time of the unveiling of the believer that we talked about quite a few weeks ago in Romans. This glorious hope, this glorious anticipation of going to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, and being made like Him, and being unveiled as the sons of God, can enable me to put up with much on the face of this earth. It causes me not to live for the present, but for the future. And so thereby you can see that this hope produces patience. I can put up with things today.
22/ Let me use an example. Suppose I know that someone died and left me some money, and it was going to be a great deal of money, and I was going to come in possession of it in a very short time. As soon as the will was taken care of, the money would be transferred into my account. Not having money today or the next few weeks would really bother me, because I would be looking beyond my present circumstances of poverty, into the future circumstances of wealth, and that is exactly what should happen here. Faith, hope and love were exhibited in this church in Thessalonica.
23/ Now notice verse 3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
He concludes with something that is most significant. It is not a matter that Paul saw these things—faith, hope and love in these folks. It was rather that it is in the sight of God our Father. This brings us back to a very pointed question which everyone can ask himself. What does God see in my heart? A real trust in Him, a real love to serve Him, a real hope that brings patience in my life? It is true that God looks at our hearts, and it is true that He keeps records of what we think and do and say.
24/ My mind goes back to Exodus 32: 9 And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff necked people:
Here we have the children if Israel—they were just plum out of patience. Moses had gone up into the mountain to receive the law of God, and while He was gone, they became restless and they said, something has happened to this man Moses, he is not coming back, so they told Aaron, you make us a God that will go before us. And when God came down from the Mount with Moses, God spoke to him and said, I have seen this people, and behold it is a stiff necked people.
Notice, God saw them, He knew their hearts. God knew what was causing them to reach out for idolatry. It is important that we know God knows us and is watching over us. It is well that we look at this Scripture carefully and see if these things are true in our lives.
AMEN
REF: 01/13/1963/ SALVATION AND THE LORD’S APPEARING / 09/04/2020
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